The research of self-healable polymers intended for medical use has increased in the last 20 years. These materials can self-repair and recover their functionality after damage; thus, they are of significant interest in diverse academic areas, including the biomedical field. In this regard, numerous synthetic and natural polymers are being used to develop self-healing hydrogels for tissue engineering applications, particularly for the restoration of bones, cartilage, skin, and even the central nervous system. These materials possess distinct advantages; for example, natural polymers are usually biocompatible and biodegradable, whereas synthetic polymers could be more suitable when rigid hydrogels with fast kinetics are required. Moreover, the intrinsic reticular matrix of these self-healing systems allows the load of diverse drugs and their controlled release. Remarkably, polymers may be mixed to obtain hydrogels with enhanced mechanical and biological properties. The elaboration of self-healable hydrogels is carried out through either covalent crosslinking or non-covalent crosslinking; the selection of the method depends on many factors, including the required mechanical properties and desired use. Although some articles have reviewed self-healing hydrogels, papers focused on utilizing these systems in tissue engineering are scarce. In this article, we perform a concise description of fabrication methods of self-healing hydrogels and the employed polymers. Furthermore, we provide numerous examples of hydrogels intended for biomedical purposes and discuss their key functional properties. Our main objective was to point out the most recent progress in utilizing self-healing polymers in tissue engineering.

在过去的 20 年中，用于医疗用途的自修复聚合物的研究有所增加。这些材料可以自我修复并在损坏后恢复其功能；因此，他们对包括生物医学领域在内的各种学术领域都具有浓厚的兴趣。在这方面，许多合成和天然聚合物被用于开发用于组织工程应用的自修复水凝胶，特别是用于修复骨骼、软骨、皮肤，甚至中枢神经系统。这些材料具有明显的优势；例如，天然聚合物通常具有生物相容性和生物可降解性，而合成聚合物可能更适合需要具有快速动力学的刚性水凝胶。而且，这些自愈系统的内在网状基质允许装载不同的药物及其控制释放。值得注意的是，聚合物可以混合以获得具有增强的机械和生物性能的水凝胶。自修复水凝胶的制备是通过共价交联或非共价交联进行的；方法的选择取决于许多因素，包括所需的机械性能和所需的用途。尽管一些文章回顾了自修复水凝胶，但专注于在组织工程中利用这些系统的论文很少。在本文中，我们对自修复水凝胶的制造方法和所采用的聚合物进行了简要描述。此外，我们提供了许多用于生物医学目的的水凝胶示例，并讨论了它们的关键功能特性。我们的主要目标是指出在组织工程中利用自修复聚合物的最新进展。